Jew Watch

Jew Watch
Type of site
Antisemitic website[1]
Available inEnglish
OwnerFrank Weltner
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Jew Watch was an antisemitic[1] website promoting Holocaust denial[2] and negative claims about Jews. The claims included allegations of a conspiracy that Jews control the media and banking,[3] as well as accusations of Jewish involvement in terrorist groups. The site contained propaganda, according to Sam Varghese of The Age, similar to that used in Nazi Germany.[4] It was widely considered a hate site.[1] Jew Watch received support from Stormfront, a white nationalist and neo-Nazi site.[5] The site described itself as a "not-for-profit library for private study, scholarship, or research [that keeps] a close watch on Jewish Communities and organizations worldwide".[6]

The site received media attention in April 2004 when it emerged as the first result in a Google search for the word "Jew" and a petition was started to get the site removed from Google search results.[7][8] A scandal in 2006 involved solicitations for donations to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina being redirected to Jew Watch.[9]

  1. ^ a b c Antisemitic and hate site:
    • "Racists of all beliefs can find materials to their liking on the Internet. ... One such site, Jew Watch, contains articles and other writings on anti Semitic themes, with such titles as "World War Two Slave Labor Issues and Greedy Jewish Lawyers" and "The Rothschild Internationalist Zionist Banking One World Order Family"." Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the use of the Internet for purposes of incitement to racial hatred, racist propaganda and xenophobia, and on ways of promoting international cooperation in this area. World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Preparatory Committee Second session. Geneva, 21 May-1 June 2001. Item 6 of the provisional agenda. Review of Reports, Studies and Other Documentation for the Preparatory Committee and the World Conference. United Nations General Assembly. A/CONF.189/PC.2/12. 27 April 2001
    • "He runs Jew Watch, a wildly anti-Semitic, 6-year-old Web site that carries archives of conspiracy theories about Jews." Radical Radio: Neo-Nazi broadcasting from St. Louis AM station Archived 2012-08-13 at the Wayback Machine, Southern Poverty Law Center, Fall 2004. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
    • Becker, David (2004-04-07). "Google caught in Anti-Semitism flap". CNET. Retrieved 2006-04-09.
    • Sullivan, Danny (2004-04-25). "Google In Controversy Over Top-Ranking For Anti-Jewish Site". Search Engine Watch. Archived from the original on 2006-10-17. Retrieved 2006-08-08.
    • "In fact, the No. 1 result for the search entry "Jew" turns out to be www.jewwatch.com. The fanatically anti-Semitic hate site is ranked first in relevance of more than 1.72 million Web pages ..." Joe Eskenazi. No. 1 Google result for ‘Jew’ is fanatical hate site – for now, J. The Jewish News of Northern California, March 19, 2004.
    • "As previously reported, the anti-Semitic site Jew Watch used to be the first item returned from a Google search on the word "Jew," a result that attracted widespread criticism and several online protest campaigns." David Becker. Anti-Semitic site drops off Google, CNET, April 26, 2004. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
    • "Money donated through multiple Web sites registered to Frank Weltner of St. Louis was redirected to a site that collected money for an anti-Semitic and racist organization, Nixon said ... Nixon said Weltner registered at least 10 Internet domain names with Katrina-related themes, such as donatekatrina.com and katrinafamilies.com. The Web sites showed photos of neighborhoods in rubble and families in peril, along with a pitch to donate. Those who clicked on a link to donate were redirected to a central Web site, InternetDonations.org., the same collection point for individuals pledging donations to JewWatch.com." Nixon obtains permanent injuntion against Jewwatch.com operator who deceptively solicited Katrina donations Archived 2012-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, Attorney-General Jay Nixon press release, October 26, 2006. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
    • "Jew Watch organizes its anti-Semitic materials much in the same way a popular Web directory might group more benign information." Poisoning the Web: Hatred Online – Don Black: White Pride World Wide Archived 2008-12-25 at the Wayback Machine, Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
    • "Google's review comes a couple weeks after the Anti-Defamation League and online petitioners expressed concern over an anti-Semitic Web site, Jew Watch, showing up among the top results for the search term 'Jew.'" Verne Kopytoff. Google revisits policy on hate sites, San Francisco Chronicle, April 23, 2004.
    • "A New York real estate developer has launched an online petition to get an anti-Semitic site removed from Google's index after it came up as the first result when he did a search for the word 'Jew'." Online petition launched against anti-Semitic site, The Age, April 7, 2004.
    • "So it's ironic that an anti-Semitic website, Jewwatch.com, would find a host in Boca Raton. But it did." Hate Speech: Boca anti-Semitic website host tells site owner to “take his business elsewhere.” Archived 2011-09-29 at the Wayback Machine, Boca Raton News, January 5, 2006.
    • "Although not mentioned in the Audit, two specific antisemitic web sites came to the attention of the Canadian Jewish community. Jew Watch, a vehemently antisemitic web site, was being listed by an Internet search engine under the 'Jewish Resources' section." 1998 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents Archived 2012-02-10 at the Wayback Machine, B'nai Brith Canada. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
    • "In March, during a casual Web search, the 26-year-old real-estate investor accidentally found that Jew Watch, an anti-Semitic site, was the top Google result." John Brandon. Dropping the Bomb on Google, Wired News, May 11, 2004. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
    • "... even when they appear on the internet, the antisemitic extremes of Jew-watch.com and the ethnic boosterism of Jewhoo.com seem relics of an archaic time." Vincent Brook. You Should See Yourself: Jewish Identity in Postmodern American Culture, Rutgers University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8135-3845-9, p. 232.
    • "... Jew Watch (a hate site allegedly reporting Jewish monopoly, banking, and media control worldwide)." Eli M. Salzberger, Niva Elkin-Koren: Law, Economics and Cyberspace. The Effects of Cyberspace on the Economic Analysis of Law. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-84064-669-1. p. 72
    • "... an anti-Semitic website named 'Jew Watch.'" Experts Warn of Rapid Growth in On-Line Hate Archived 2007-10-19 at the Wayback Machine by Kirk Makin. Globe and Mail, September 13, 2006
    • "Racist skinheads connect and reconnect online through a multitude of websites like Stormfront and Jew Watch, which are deep reservoirs of hate ..." Barry Howard Minkin: Ten Great Lies That Threaten Western Civilization Ten Great Lies, 2007. ISBN 0-9792904-0-6. p. 140.
  2. ^ Levy, Steven. "Google: Watch Out For 'Watch'", Newsweek, 26 April 2004, accessed 23 November 2010. (subscription required)
  3. ^ Elkin-Koren, Niva; Salzberger, Eli M. (2004). Law, Economics and Cyberspace: The Effects of Cyberspace on the Economic Analysis of Law, Edward Elgar Publishing, p. 72.
  4. ^ Varghese, Sam. "Online petition launched against anti-Semitic site", The Age, 7 April 2004, accessed 23 November 2010.
  5. ^ "Daily Digest", San Francisco Chronicle, 27 April 2004, accessed 23 November 2010.
  6. ^ Anderson, Jack; Cohn, Douglas. "Hate groups discover the Internet", The Hour, 24 October 2000, p. 134.
  7. ^ Brandon, John. "Dropping the bomb on Google", Wired, 11 May 2004, accessed 23 November 2010. Archived 2010-10-12 at the Wayback Machine 22 November 2010.
  8. ^ "RemoveJewWatch.com", WhyNot Media, accessed 23 November 2010. Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine 23 November 2010.
  9. ^ Missouri Sues To Stop Phony Katrina Relief Sites Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine ConsumerAffairs. September 13, 2005